Rockefeller Family Fund
From Sunshine Review
| Rockefeller Family Foundation | |
| Foundation | |
 | |
| Leadership: | Lee Wasserman |
| Political party | Nonpartisan |
| Website | Rockefeller Family Foundation |
| Citizen participation and government accountability, economic justice for women, environment, and institutional responsiveness | |
The Rockefeller Family Fund, or Rockefeller Family Foundation, was founded in 1967 by the third generation of Rockefellers – David, Nelson, Laurance, John, and Martha – to support “advocacy programs of national significance that are likely to yield tangible public policy results.”
[edit] Mission
The fund supports groups that fall into one of four categories: citizen participation and government accountability, economic justice for women, environment, and institutional responsiveness. As of Dec. 31, 2007 the fund has over $98 million in assets and awarded over $6 million in grants.[1]
[edit] Rockefeller family
While Rockefeller family members usually steer clear of sitting on the various Rockefeller foundations to avoid accusations of undue influence, the RFF is almost exclusively ran by family members, including:
Vice President Theodore Spencer (son of Hope Aldrich Rockefeller Spencer), Vice President Paul Growald (husband of Eileen Rockefeller Growald, daughter of David Rockefeller), Vice President Miranda Kaiser (daughter of Neva Rockefeller Goodwin), Vice President Geoffrey Strawbridge (son of Mary Rockefeller Callard), Board Member Renee Rockefeller (wife of Mark Rockefeller), Board Member Wendy Rockefeller (wife of Laurance Rockefeller, Jr), Board Member and Vice President Emily Rockefeller (daughter-in-law of Sen. Rockefeller) and Board Member Justin Rockefeller (son of Sen. Jay Rockefeller).
The senator has no direct say in the RFF. He is a senator in the second-largest coal producer in the United States.[1]
[edit] Anti-coal efforts
The RFF has donated thousands of dollars to stop construction of coal-fired power plants in the United States. The RFF spent $150,000 in 2007 on the RFF’s Coal-fired Power Plant Campaign. The following groups also received grants to combat coal plant construction, fund cap-and-trade promotions, and other environmental issues:
$40,000 to the Environmental Integrity Project, Inc. “Support for coordinating and providing legal help in national efforts to stop the construction or expansion of coal-fired power plants, especially in Texas and Pennsylvania.”
$50,000 to the Florida Wildlife Federation. “Support to stop construction of new coal-fired power plants in Florida.”
$30,000 to the Tomales Bay Institute. “Funding to develop and build public support for carbon reductions through a cap and dividend system that benefits consumers rather than historic polluters.”
$30,000 to the Alaska Wilderness League. “Support to advance federal action on global warming by educating decisonmakers and the public about climate change impacts on Alaska’s people, places and wildlife.”
$50,000 to CERES. “Support to develop requirements for insurance companies to disclose their financial risks related to climate change and to become advocates for actions that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
$30,000 to the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. “Funding for the Heat Is On project, designed to elevate the issues of climate change and energy policy at the national policy level by raising public awareness of these issues during the presidential primaries.”
One RFF donation was a $35,000 grant to Appalachian Voices for “funding to fight the development of new coal-fired power plants in Appalachia.” As mentioned in The West Virginia Examiner story “ACORN’s Fingerprints on the Anti-Coal Movement,” Appalachian Voices is a North Carolina-based grassroots activist group which protests mountaintop removal in West Virginia, along with logging and carbon dioxide pollution. The Tides Foundation, both directly and through the Appalachian Community Fund, has also donated thousands of dollars to Appalachian Voices.[2]
